Jailhouse Poets

Our Secret
Hey, Lord.
We have a secret.

There are some things about
Being old that are fun, yes fun.
The world gets off your back.

They neglect you.

You don’t have to keep up appearances.
You can go back to the fun of being a child,
Watching a spider spin a web.
Making shadow pictures against the light,
Exploring the backyard
As if it were a new country.
Eating applesauce with cream
Instead of dinner,

Dawdling, staying up all night

Counting stars.
Staying home from a dull party
To play chess with an old friend,
Wearing a funny hat.

Why didn’t you tell me
That besides all the things I hate
About old age,
There’s some fun in it?

I know.
I wouldn’t have believed you.

A Sense of Love

The children haven’t turned out
The way we thought they would..
Their parents are hurt and angry,
Ashamed and worried about it.

I’m not.

I like these kids the way they are:
Open and honest, disorganized and gentle,
Scruffy and kind.

They don’t seem to mind spending time with me.
We talked about real things,
Dreams, peace, the sky.
They tell me that living is more important
Than accomplishing things.

I agree.

Their parents are outraged by this,.
So I don’t go into it.
I say, “The kids came.”

The parents say, “Good. At least
They have s sense of duty.”

I think they have a sense of love.

poems by Sandra

So I swung

I saw a swing
so I swung.
I saw the cigarette
so I smoked it.
I saw the drug
so I did it
and did it.
I saw the gun
so I took it.
I saw the store
so I robbed it.
I saw the police
so I ran.
I see my mother cry

but I gave it another try,
another fix, another store.
I saw a lawyer.
I saw a judge.
I saw the jury.

Now all I’ll see is more bars.
I’ll see the prison.
Maybe one day

poem by Peggy Sue

It Is Nothing I Do

It is nothing
I do
that makes me different
from anyone else

It is the events:
random and
sometimes
savage that
happened to me
that made me
what I am

poem by Stephanie

Emergency

I really don’t think we should go through
with this you guys.
I have a feeling we’ll be sorry.

You always have your funny feelings.

Okay smart ass, go ahead.
But don’t forget I warned you.
Hurry up and get it over with.

O HOLY SHIT!
Spread legs, hands on the car.

        You were right. I’m sorry.

        Just shut up, Okay? Sorry isn’t going to help  now.
       
        Sitting in the cop car i felt for this man.
        I turned to him and said;
        Don’t worry love.

        One day we’ll laugh at this shit.
        One day we’ll write a book.

I Seek Peace

Why do you hide from me?
I look for you in my God.
I look for you in pleasure.

I seek you, for I need you.
Peace, restore my soul.
I see you in my child’s face,
In families that gather together.

I see you when two young lovers
Gaze into each others eyes.
So, why Peace,
Do you hide from me?

The doors of my heart
Are open to you.
Won’t you please come in?

poems by Yvonne

All of the above poems were written by women in prison in a book called: “So I Swung” which is an anthology of work by women in the Travis county Jail, 1978.

John F. Kennedy

President Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at Dallas Love Field Airport, November 22, 1953. He was later shot to death as his motorcade rode through downtown Dallas in an open convertible. It was a sunny day.

John F. Kennedy

I cried when John F. Kennedy was killed.
Slain by a gunman named
Lee Harvey Oswald. An American.

A strange fellow, hell bent on committing the ultimate crime.
        Political disagreement with the president?
                        Maybe. There were rumors.

    I hate violence, disruptions and death.

When the media
Said President Kennedy had been shot in my
Part of the country: Texas
        I felt ashamed that it occurred in Dallas.
                    
               The date was November 22, 1963.
       
I remember thinking: Violence is so intentional.
So evil. So distracting. So aimless.

Death should be natural.
Not forced by a killer’s bullet.

I was in downtown Austin
     The day it happened:
    The assassination.
I was waiting to catch a bus,

Smiling behind my lips, being
Flirted with by passing men.

Hearing about death was not on
        My to-do-list.
    The day was too sunny and
    Pretty to ruin with that kind of news:

    The fatality of a president.

I heard a man or woman
Say Kennedy had been shot.
His condition was uncertain. Everything was crazy.
The news was traveling at record speed.
 
I was surprised for some reason.
I don’t think I believed it.

I was not close to a radio
Or TV. I had to wait
Until I got home.

        It was a long bus ride.
            A very long ride.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

They said the shots rang out, 
Annihilating a life
That had a right to be lived in full.

        My mother greeted me at the door
            With the tragic news.

    I didn’t want to cry.
        Not for this man,
        The president of the United States.
   
        He was a stranger to me.
    Nonetheless I had voted for hm.

The bothersome knot settling 
Deep in my throat.
Was preparing to strangle me.
The need to cry can be stifling.

My head and chest were heavy,
Each breathing and beating to its own rhythm.
I thought each would
        Burst under the pulsating pressure:
            Beat. Throb. Beat. Throb. Beat. Throb.

Things got better after letting
Go the tears.
Private tears I had saved and packaged
For a different occasion.

I teetered between sniffling
And crying out loud when Kennedy’s
Funeral was televised.

Watching it with the
Rest of rest of the world
Was harder than when the
    Assassination was first announced by
        A tearful media.

That was the first and last time
I  cried for a white man.
 

His death has been a lasting memory.

The assassinator of President
John F. Kennedy was gunned down
By a hat wearing
Little man named
         Jack Ruby,  
    A night club owner in Dallas.
   
Lee Harvey Oswald
Was in police custody
When the single shot was fired.
           
Police and detectives stood still as cement,
Their mouths and eyes
Propped open in total shock
        As a “distraught” Ruby delivered
        A fatal bullet to Oswald’s belly.
                  Point blank.

    The hefty little shooter surrendered without incident.

Ruby was able to get close to
The captured suspect because
He was a familiar face
At the Dallas Police Department.

Familiarity bred justice outside the courtroom
        That bright sunny day.

It’s true the brain is a filing cabinet.
This retrieved file helped me write this poem. 
It helped me remember
That November day in history,
When sunshine, bullets and tragedy
Controlled the world’s attention.

The retrieved file
Helped me recall that
Solemn day.
It was the first and last time
My mother held me while I cried.

I was a grown woman with daughters of my own.

Daughters that I held whenever they cried.
 

Copyright by dorothy charles banks

Hate is a festering sore that cannot heal itself

First Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden promoting support of veterans at NASCAR, where they were booed by some disgruntled individuals attending the race.

Hate has no limit, neither does its second cousin, Ignorance. Individuals who booed the First and Second Ladies at NASCAR were limited in their knowledge about what the two have done to benefit veterans and their families. Fighting for veterans and their families has been a nonstop project for Michelle Obama and Jill Biden.

I am elated to see that these educated, talented, hard working women are able to rise above quibblers. Hate and whining is time consuming. It eventually destroys the individual. It does not add important additions t0 his or her life. Hate eats you alive. It smothers the senses. It festers like an incurable sore. 

 Those who booed First Lady Michelle and Second Lady Jill Biden cannot let go of their rancor, or attempt to cure that festering sore of hate. These personality downfalls have resided inside them too many years. They are not willing to let go. It seems they will have no life if hate is not their motivation to live.

Confucius said: "Ignorance is the night of mind; a night without moon or stars." Confucius did not know these MASCAR folk but he was right on the money about who they are.

How sad it is that disgruntled NASCAR fans did not realize they are shutting out the moon and stars, two of the freest gifts in life. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden are trying to give both of these to the troops and their families. Our soldiers deserve the moon and stars and more, because their lives have been uprooted by two deadly conflicts in the Middle East. Their lives have been changed for ever. Their peace of mind is walking on egg shells.

By disrespecting Michelle and Jill, the booing fans disrespected deployed troops, veterans, the wives of soldiers, the husbands of soldiers, their children, and their service to America. The booing was tantamount to stomping on the graves of men and women who lost their lives fighting for America's freedom. A freedom that allowed NASCAR fans to boo two women struggling to fulfill a promise.

Repulsed by one; enthralled by the other

(above) Presidential candidate Herman Cain

It is now way past common knowledge that Barack Obama is of mixed heritage. He has a White mother and a Black father from Kenya. He was raised by his late mother and White grandparents.

During Obama’s run for the presidency, he was demonized and scandalized by southern-raised yahoos. When he won the presidency, their open contempt flowed like a polluted river from one red state to the other. Monied organizations like Americans for Prosperity financed anti-Obama protests. Participants proudly displayed signs and banners communicating old school emotions and fanaticism. 

Republicans were empowered by their own agenda and spirit of repulsion for Obama. Their pre-election animus boiled over, spilling into Obama’s presidency. They declared before the campaign began that Hillary Clinton would get the Democratic nomination; Rudy Giuliani would get the Republican nomination. Giuliani was favored to win the presidency against Clinton. Pollsters and the media predicted he would prance to victory. In the meanwhile, the media complex and prognosticators treated Obama like a sideshow that would be laughed off the national stage in 2008.

Herman Cain, on the other hand, in 2011, has a devoted following among the same people that loathe Obama. Inasmuch as Cain is not garnering love from the majority of elected Republicans, a few of them are not in his corner. But they pretend to be in public. Republican rivals who bash Cain have been measured in their language and criticism. They do not want to alienate his supporters, most of whom belong to the Tea Party club, and are vocal in their dislike of President Obama.

At a recent Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference in Washington, Cain got thunderous approval when he introduced himself as "the Koch brothers' brother from another mother."  Nothing original but his supporters ate it up.

Charles and David Koch are multi-billionaires who  are buying politicians and the offices they want them to win. By the way, Cain lifted that “brother from another mother” line from Rush Hour 1,  delivered by actor/comedian Chris Tucker. Another by the way--the Koch brothers will not be spending millions of dollars on Cain's campaign. They know he will not get the nomination. Tea party support for Cain will falter before election day.

This week Cain mentioned Bill Ayers in the midst of a speech. Ayers is a favorite bogeyman for Republican candidates.  In 2008 the GOP used Ayers like a pin cushion, hoping to needle punch the air out of Obama’s candidacy.  I suspect Cain will rehash this old and trite tactics, using  Ayers, Rev. Wright, Obama’s birth certificate and legal citizenship to appease his base. 

As an African American who follows Herman Cain’s candidacy, I see the historical aspect of his running to defeat a sitting president, who is Black. We have never had that happen in America, and it will probably be many more decades to come before it happens again. Despite Obama being a historical first in America, I  do not think Cain will become the second Black president. He confirms my observations each time he participates in the Republican's debates. I sense that he is controlling and short-tempered. He has a mean streak that cameras cannot hide.

There is an old adage that says, “seek and ye shall find.”  After a couple of hours of searching the Internet I found my answer  on the American Thinker, where I read an article titled “10 Reasons to  Support Herman Cain for President” by C. Edmund Wright, July 18, 2011.

Wright wrote that the number one reason for electing Cain is: “It opens the door to a ticket of Cain and Haley Barbour in some order.  OK, maybe this is not earthshaking, but imagine the 'racist Republican Party' putting forth a national ticket including a drawlin' Mississippi good ol' boy and a black businessman who still speaks a smidgen of Ebonics.”

Wright cleared up the hate Obama, love Cain question. His number 10 reason for electing Cain dealt with race. He wrote: “A Cain candidacy not only takes the race card off the table -- it might in fact put it in the Republicans' camp.  Frankly, Cain is 'blacker' than Obama in every way imaginable.  He does not have a white parent.  

"He has a slight black dialect and does not ‘turn it off’ to impress Harry Reid or Joe Biden, nor does he ‘amp it up’ to impress Jeremiah Wright. As Obama's presidency has shown, America did not need a black president. What America needs is to just get over the race thing, period.  Cain is over it, and I bet he would flat-out tell Obama to get over it, too.”

 

President Barack Obama

Repulsion for President Obama 

Enthralled by Herman Cain

Enthralled  by Herman Cain

Repulsion for President Obama

Your life, no matter how long or short, can flash in front of your eyes on the way to dying

dorothy charles banks

As a youngster I was not a follower. I would readily accept a challenge or dare if it wasn’t too dangerous. Dangerous or not, there is something mischievous about a dare. If and when I strayed from my usual posture, it because I wanted to experience something different, intentionally breaking away from my regular routine.

This afternoon (Sunday) I was watching a automobile commercial where the distracted driver quickly stepped on his brakes, avoiding a crash with an 18 wheeler. I think the purpose of the commercial, in addition to selling the car,  was to show the efficiency of the car’s brakes.

But that’s not what caught my attention.

Just as the driver was about to T-bone the 18 wheeler, his life flashed in front of his eyes. He time traveled  back to his childhood through a series of scenes. It was at that moment in the commercial that took me back to the day my life flashed in front of my eyes. Some people argue that this never happens when you’re facing death. Just like some argue that dying individuals never see a bright light. I don’t argue those points. All life threatening experiences are different. My mother and grandmother saw "the light."

I was about 14-years-old, in middle school. I remember it was a hot summer day, one of the few summer days my mother allowed my sister and I to go swimming at Rosewood Park. When I say swimming, the correct term would be more like “floating underwater." Nonetheless, I thought I was really swimming!

On this particular day the good to excellent swimmers were diving off the board into the deep water. I was hanging out in the shallow water. Sometimes I’d venture into five feet of water, clinging to the pool's edge. I felt safe as I held on for support. 

The experienced divers were much more fun compared to me. Somebody yelled at me: “Dorothy Charles! I dare you to jump off the diving board!” Everybody turned to look at me, waiting to see what I would do. With all eyes on me, including the life guard, how could I refuse a dare! Even knowing I couldn’t swim a lick, my youthful ego wouldn’t let me refuse this public dare. I’d show them!

Laughing, I walked up the few steps leading to the diving board. I didn’t know how to dive so I just jumped into the deep water, feet first. I surfaced from the water, screaming for help. I felt panic and fear overtaking me. Everybody starting laughing. They thought I was kidding.  Immediately after screaming for help, my short life began flashing in front of me with lighting speed, almost like an out of control movie reel.

The second time I surfaced the reel was moving faster. The bodyguard was watching me,  thinking I was playing as I screamed again. I looked in his direction. He didn’t move. He probably thought if I was stupid enough to take a dare and dive into the deep water, I probably knew how to swim.

The third time I surfaced the reel was still rolling.  I can’t explain it but I had the sense of mind to notice the sun was brighter than I remembered.  It was blindingly bright. At this point the reel ended abruptly as I was about to go under for a fourth time. 

The bodyguard dove into the pool, realizing that I was not playing a game. Lucky for me he hit the water when he did. He pumped out the water I had swallowed. Later he tried to convince me to get back in the pool, in the shallow section. I was too embarrassed. Everyone was standing around looking at me, concerned. The lifeguard didn’t scold or lecture me. He realized how scared I was. I went home, not understanding the reel. I didn't tell my mother what happened, because she wouldn't let my sister and I go swimming again. My sister didn't tell what happened.
 
After several days I returned to the pool, but I didn’t take another dare to dive into the deep section. I had learned my lesson. I wasn’t going to push my luck a second time. I have never forgotten how my young life flashed in front of my eyes that particular summer. 

Oh, yeah. There is one fact I forgot to mention. By the time the reel stopped, and I was going underwater for the fourth time, I had returned to my mother’s womb, waiting to be born. This was a true experience.

Halloween fun in Virginia

This "fun" poster was emailed to draw people  to a local fair in Virginia. That is a gun shot wound to President Obama's head.

Southern Republicans. What a bunch of yahoos. Their ideal day is labeling Democrats and blaming them for everything wrong in their lives; passing the lie onto their supporters. Needless to say this delusional tale makes them happier than ticks on a fat dog.

But be assured Republicans  are known to squeal louder than a pig heading to slaughter when the table turns on them. They hate being called racist hypocrites. They failed to realize their sense of decency and civility is bankrupt and corrupt. 

I have concluded–without the benefit of scientific proof–that a large population of Republicans are naturally violent, and will not hesitate to act on their sadistic urges to snuff out a human life. 
 
Their distaste for President Obama is too fierce and too consuming to conceal, as depicted in this so-called Halloween party invitation posted above. It was mass emailed to Loudoun County, Virginia to Republicans and their supporters.

There is nothing like sending a subliminal invitation to a ready-to-go-over-the edge follower, longing for national praise and attention, catapulting himself into the world spotlight. He would be a hero to Republicans if he committed an act of violence against President Barack Obama.

Virginia's Republican governor, Bob O’Donnell, did not make an in-person statement admonishing the action of the local GOP for the emailed invitation. Instead, he talked through a spokesperson. He said the graphic is "shameful and offensive". He asked Loudoun Republicans to apologize to the president. He asked that no more of these images be used again.

The most troubling for me in the graphics are the images of President Obama. He resembles a zombie with a large bullet hole to his forehead. His face is badly bruised. In fact, the whole graphic depicts a character in the The Walking Dead. 
 

Loudoun County GOP Chairman Mark Sell did not see what the brouhaha was about. The violent graphics on the invitation are fine with him. But, alas, pressure forced him to publicly abandon his sick sense of humor. He said in an interview with Associated Press’s Bob Lewis that the graphic was a "light hearted" attempt to inject satire and humor into Halloween.

“Apparently some individuals have interpreted an image of Barack Obama that appeared within the email, as intending to portray the President as a victim of a violent crime. 
Nothing could be further from the truth, and sincerely apologizes to the President 
and anyone who viewed the images if that was the impression that was left”. (Yahoo News)

I decided to read some of comments posted below the story on Yahoo News. I wish I could say I was shocked or mildly surprised  at what I read. Many of the commenters said the violent graphic is funny, and asked: What's the big deal? Someone posted that [s]he was disappointed the graphic was not a real photo of President Obama after getting shot in the head. 

Sir Donald attempts to exact “roasted” revenge via candidates Perry and Bachmann

Pretend candidate Sir Donald Trump

They're back! Not the Halloween Cookie Monster or Frankenstein costumes! I'm talking about the Barack Obama Birth Certificate wash and wear costume initially put on the market by a foreign born woman named Orly Taitz. This German-born woman with a heavy accent, had the unmitigated gall to accuse President Obama of stealing the Social Security numbers of four individuals, using them all in states where he was formerly employed. 

Just when we thought the costume was discontinued, abracadabra! It pops up again faster than beer turns into piss! Or faster than a happy dog can lick its balls. 

Did I mention the Tea Party's incessant rants about President Barack Hussein Obama being a Muslim? Yep! Muslim! Imagine that! Hawaii born Barack Obama successfully pulled off the biggest political hoax ever played on Americans! They say he was born in Kenya not America.

Hot damn! This young man with the "funny name" is some kind of magician.

It was not by accident that the Obama birth certificate mania was given new life by Texas governor Slick Rick Perry, with the help of Sir Donald Trump, a real estate mogul and multi-billionaire. It has come to light that Trump wants to get into politics. He does not want to begin at the bottom. He wants to shoot for the top office: the White House. He decided not to run against Barack Obama in 2008.

Sometimes desperate presidential candidates do desperate things to get attention and votes.  Slick Rick was granted an audience with Sir Donald to discuss President Barack Obama's birth certificate and to get his blessing. The meeting generated a few more minutes in the spotlight.
 

Birther Queen, Orly Taitz

Slick Rick Perry walked into the media sunlight, adding his two cents to the birther mania. Slick Rick proved that he is a good ol' Texas boy who just wanted to have a little Southern fun at the expense of the President of the United States! After all, ain't no White man and woman in Texas, or the United States got to show respect towards this colored boy in the White House. Hell, the color of the "White House" is white! That says it all! It's the White folk's house!

In 1868 a presidential candidate named Horatio Seymour had a campaign slogan that fit right in with the way White politicians and millions of White voters think today: "This is a White man's government!" That implies, suggests, and says loudly that no Black man has a right to think he can be president of the United States of America.

Slick Rick, a true Texan, would have thoroughly agreed with Seymour's slogan. Still in the presence of Sir Trump, Slick Rick said in his lazy drawl--that's the way we talk down here in Texas --“It’s a good issue to keep alive. It’s fun to poke fun at President Obama a little bit, and say, 'how about let’s see your grades, and your birth certificate'”.  

You see, at the scheduled meeting with Sir Trump, Slick Rick agreed that this would be a good subject to retackle. The more pressure on President Obama the better! Hot biscuits and gravy! Exposure is like a fresh blast of Texas sunlight set free by Almighty God himself!

Slick Rick Perry beamed with pride as he stood in the public spotlight, draped in his metaphorical Barack Obama Birther's wash and wear costume. He was ready to dazzle Americans, Texas style. He thought his spanking new birther platform was hotter than a couple of sex crazed rabbits in a pepper patch. 

Sir Trump was pretty proud, too. His name would be in the headlines. Again. The media would write about him like he's a legend. Pundits would talk about him. Oh, the glory! This traveling road show was going to be huge! Hell, they were even going to prove that Barack Obama is not all that intelligent! His grades, whatever they are, are as fake as his claim he is an American! 

Born in Hawaii? Get outta here! Ain't that a foreign country?

Speaking of grades, the Texas governor, preparing himself to be president of the U. S. A., said everybody had seen his college grades. I had to laugh out loud at this, because stacking his grades up against President Obama's grades is like using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. A careful examination of the President's academic achievements would have told Slick Rick that he is "poking" fun out the wrong side of his mouth. I do not recall anybody being interested in how well he fared in the classrooms at Texas A and M University.

 Barack Obama graduated from Columbia University at 20, earning a BA. He entered Harvard Law School in 1988. He was selected editor of the Harvard Law Review journal at the end of his first year, was and president his second year, a first in the university's 104-year-old history. Obama graduated from Harvard with a Juris Doctor ( J.D.), magna cum laude in 1991, the year he accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Obama taught constitutional law at the University for 12 years. From 1992 to 1996 he was a lecturer; from 1996 to 2004 he was a senior lecturer. He was a research assistant for scholar Laurence Tribe for two years while at Harvard.

Rick Perry attended Texas A and M University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets; the Alpha Gamma Rho and was elected social class secretary. He was a Aggie Yell Leader. He graduated a C student with a BA in animal science in 1972. Since first publishing this article in 2011 Perry has been confirmed to be the Secretary of Energy, the department he wanted to dismantle, but could not remember by name in a 2011 presidential debate. He was selected to head the department by Donald Trump, America's latest president, elected  November 8, 2016, beating out Hillary Clinton. Slick Rick became governor of Texas when Governor George Bush decided to run for president. Perry finished Bush's term and ran for office and won.

Photo from 1970 yearbook.  Rick Perry is sitting on the far right edge of the couch.

Harvard Law Review president Barack Obama (center) a year before graduation.

Donald Trump, during his wannabe candidacy for president, proudly wore his grades but not too often. College grades are not as colorful, or media grabbing as a "questionable" birther's certificate. However, Sir Trump's imagination and speculation did not fall asleep on the job. He said Obama was a terrible student in college. He said no one remembered attending college with him! He offered no proof. That means none of the people in the above photo remembers Barack Obama. Trump told America that he attended the best university in the world--Wharton School of Business, a university of Pennsylvania. 

"I went to an Ivy League school. I'm very highly educated. I know words. I have the best words," Sir Donald reminded America.  And unlike Barack Obama, all of the students and professors remembers him! However, Trump did not offer proof of his "hugeness" on campus or in the classroom. Slick Rick Perry did not flash his college transcripts or grades, and nobody demanded to see them.
 
It was not enough for Sir Trump to get drawn, quartered and dragged through the town square by President Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondence Dinner, May 1. With those in attendance and TV viewers laughing at the President poking Texas size fun of him, it was hallelujah hilarious!  Sir Donald Trump did not like the joking and poking. He half-assed smiled but he was steaming hot under his coat of thin skin. The nerve of Barack Obama, an illegitimate Black president, dressing him down on national TV!

And then along comes other Republican candidates requesting an audience with Sir Donald Trump. Michelle Bachmann, via a teleconference call at a town hall meeting, was instructed by Sir Trump to regurgitate the home buying “scandal” in Chicago that nipped at the heels of candidate Barack Obama during his campaign. In 2008 the media and pundits attempted to create a scandal out of a nonscandal issue surrounding the purchase of the Obama's Chicago home. The media and pundits can thank Sean Hannity at Fox for the blockbuster. The Hannity hatched "scandal" eventually blew over like a three-legged paper tiger.

The media and talking heads on TV said some funny business had taken between Obama and the owner of the property. The home purchase costume was worn thin by the media and Fox. If Michelle Bachmann sewed the bits and pieces back together, she has not worn the costume in public. But the circus is just getting started. There is still time.

When the birther's costume lost its unattractiveness and gloss, Slick Rick Perry did the Texas-Two-Step off the stage to shed the ill fitting outfit. He reappeared and said it was a distraction. He did not want to play anymore. Tsk. Tsk. Sir Trump played him like a dime store fiddle. As a friend of mine would say: "He made a fair ass out of him"!
 
Asked why he revived the birther's question, Slick Rick Perry said, “I’m really not worried about the president’s birth certificate”. Being a sport, he just wanted to let Sir Donald have some fun at Obama's expense.  Slick Rick's people did not tell him that "poking fun" may work in Texas but not on a national stage. 

And now Sir Donald Trump is left with his bitter bitchfest, birther's allegations, suggestion that the President may be a secret Muslim, and endless hours of bragging on Fox. The Obama roasting he got at the Correspondent Dinner is now in the presidential archives of hilarious history. It's a classic!

Cain says president making mistake telling the enemy when the withdrawl begins

Herman Cain

Frontrunner Herman Cain did not write a press release, but that may be a good thing. It might have been more confusing than his 9-9-9 tax plan. He misunderstood his own plan. He it changed to 9-0-9. I heard him explain it but I am still confused.

Watching Cain, I sense he thinks he is the smartest person in the room, and everyone has to defer to him. To get the votes and support of the Tea Party, Cain has shown that he will pander and say whatever is necessary to achieve his political goals.

 Cain is a nonstop critic of President Obama. He said he would run circles around him in a foreign policy debate. I would pay to see that!  In a debate with President Obama, Cain would get whipped so fast he wouldn't realize he's been hit by lightning speed intelligence.

Cain's cryptic statement on troop withdrawal from Iraq was made in the midst of his campaign. It reveals how short-sighted he is when it comes to a complex subject like foreign policy.

"Whether or not it's the right thing to do, I would consult with the commanders. The thing that I wouldn't do that the president is doing, is telling the enemy how many troops you gonna bring out and when you gonna bring 'em out. I believe that our time there was worth it, but I would not have announced this big drawdown, tell the enemy so now they're going to basically position themselves." 

That's it?